Essential Reading

DU was bad enough, but reports filtering out of Baghdad suggest US forces used a new type of weapon to capture the city. This is the real story behind the fall of Baghdad and it truly is the stuff of nightmares

In Andernach about 50,000 prisoners of all ages were held in an open field surrounded by barbed wire. The men I guarded had no shelter and no blankets; many had no coats. They slept in the mud, wet and cold, with inadequate slit trenches for excrement.

The Talmud expounds some of the most virulent racism, as these extracts plainly show. However, as a reader points out not all Jews are influenced by it, or even read it. Only the ultra religious study it, the rest haven’t a clue. We leave you to decide

Our web hosts were threatened with legal action after lawyers representing none other than Dov Zakheim himself claimed this article was “defamatory.” Due to an oversight the article was not fully removed so read it before Zakheim gets us shut down

Press TV — Dec 3, 2013

The Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) says the European Union has imposed fresh sanctions against the country by banning Iranian vessels from using its ports and shipping lines despite the recent nuclear deal in Geneva.

“Despite the deal reached during recent Geneva talks [between Iran and the six major world powers], in which it was agreed that no new sanctions would be imposed on Iran, the European Union has banned the entry of Iranian vessels into European [shipping] lines,” Mohammad Hossein Dajmar, managing director of IRISL, told ISNA on Tuesday.

He added that under the new sanctions, Iranian shipping fleet will not be allowed to carry petrochemical products, oil and vehicles.

Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – Britain, China, France, Russia and the US – plus Germany sealed an interim deal on November 24 to pave the way for the full resolution of the West’s decade-old dispute with Iran over the country’s nuclear energy program.

In exchange for Iran’s confidence-building bid to limit certain aspects of its nuclear energy activities, the Western countries agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against Iran and impose no new sanctions against the country.

Dajmar further noted that the IRISL will pursue the matter through legal channels.

“In due time, the IRISL will react to the new European Union’s sanctions decision and will file a lawsuit with the European Union’s courts to demand its annulment,” he pointed out.

The European Court of Justice in September struck down the EU’s sanctions against the IRISL and seven other Iranian companies.

The 28-member bloc had a 70-day period to appeal against the ruling.

However, the court didn’t receive any requests to review the verdict which means the EU should have dropped its past sanctions against the IRISL.

In 2011, the EU targeted over 30 IRISL holding companies as part of the US-led sanctions against the Islamic Republic over the false claim that the Iranian nuclear energy program had non-civilian aspects.